All the King's Horses
by Chained-to-a-kiwi
Summary: What's the difference between a Hollow and a Nobody? Why hasn't the Keyblade spoken since Dive into the Heart? Sora's mind looks strangely like The World That Never Was. Meanwhile, Roxas wakes up in a sideways world, and it's not Wonderland. Bleach xover
1. Tranquility vs Uproar

**All the King's Horses  
By: Chained-to-a-kiwi**

The sky was free of all clouds as Sora lay down on the empty beach, the warmth of the sands immediately calming him.

He had sought escape from the excitement that had erupted when he, Riku, and Kairi had received a letter from King Mickey; asking for their help... but with what, the King of Disney Castle hadn't written. Soon, another letter had arrived, stating that Donald and Goofy were coming to pick them up in a Gummy ship later that very week.

'It must be urgent if he didn't even wait for our reply... Not that we could even send one to him. He _is_ all the way across the galaxy...' Sora thought, contemplating the letter.

Kairi had left shortly after they had read the second letter, exclaiming something about packing, before taking off at a run towards her tiny boat.

Riku had excused himself a short while after the two friends discussed Kairi's reaction, his reason being that he needed to "take care of some things". This had left Sora in a state on confusion and tension.

'Barely back from the last "adventure" and we have to set out again...?'

"Man... what a day." he sighed, closing his azure eyes and yawning sleepily. He had thought of packing things for his trip, but that was only a passing notion. He didn't think he needed anything for another journey, as long as he had Riku and Kairi beside him this time. Smiling at that thought, he let himself be lulled to sleep by the soothing sounds of the ocean as calm waves lapped at his feet.

'I just hope it turns out better this time.'

* * *

The Keyblade Master awoke in state of confusion, his body almost numb from the cold surrounding him. He glanced around. 

"I've... I've seen this place before," he murmured as he surveyed his surroundings.

Dark buildings towered around him, ascending into the equally dark sky. As he stepped away from the building he had apparently been leaning against, what had first been a soft shower of rain began to pour harder from the skies.

'It seems... the rain never stops falling here...' he thought as he felt his brown hair become wet under the soft shower, the normally perky spikes drooped down sadly.

Sora walked directly towards the immense skyscraper which loomed over the entire square of black-blue buildings. Florescent lights lined the structure's edges, giving it an eerie glow compared to the lights which adorned the other edifices. Ignoring the bluish glow by lackluster lights, his gaze drifted past the halo-like half circle of gold which was at the top of the building's huge front window, and to a large, glowing star. Since the first time he could ever recall, that star had always caught his attention; it was the only thing in this place that seemed to have any life to it. Everything else... It all seemed so utterly dead.

As he put his foot on the first dark step of the cold stone stairs leading up to the shining building, a realization hit him, something which he only ever realized when he began to walk up these steps.

"I'm in the... World That Never Was..." the brunette whispered to himself as he looked up at the blue neon star above him.

'Or what looks like The World That Never Was...' he corrected himself silently, knowing better that such a thing was impossible. 'But then again, hasn't the "impossible" been proven possible throughout my adventures?'

"But... why is this the place I keep 'coming' to? This is just plain weird!" he shouted, partially to see if anyone answered him, but mostly so that he could hear something, _anything_ other than just the sound of the rain falling. It was deafening.

"Why am I here?!" he shouted, frustrated at no one in particular. He coughed as he inhaled the thick cold air, the scent of damp stone was stifling as the rain continued to pour relentlessly.

"Hey, come to think of it, why aren't there Heartless here?" Sora asked nobody again. "And if this place still existed, then wouldn't that mean the Nobodies still existed?"

'...Okay, so that wasn't the best thing to say...' he thought as the sky seemed to react to his words, the rain poured down even harder on the dead city... and Sora.

Seeking comfort, he flexed his hand, expecting the Keyblade to appear in his hand, as it had always before.

Except, this time, it didn't.

"What the-?!" he tried again, but it wouldn't appear.  
He had just started to panic when a cool voice pierced the sound of rainfall.

"The Keyblade has a will of its own sometimes, you know."

Sora's head snapped in the direction of the voice. A black cloaked figure was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his head turned up towards the brunette.

"You!" Sora exclaimed happily as he recognized the person standing before him. He stumbled capriciously down the slippery stairs, grinning at the boy who had broke the silence of the abandoned city.

To his candid surprise, the cloaked figure turned tail and ran in the opposite direction, his footsteps hitting the dark pavement soundly. Before he realized it, Sora instinctively pounded after the retreating figure.

"Wait!" Sora yelled at the person he was pursuing, his shoes squeaking against the wet concrete. After what seemed like hours, he finally couldn't chase the figure anymore; he couldn't breathe, and his legs were cramping up. Although his vision was blurry from the rain in his eyes, he could still see the cloaked individual about to turn a corner. Though he was still gasping for breath, on the verge of unconsciousness, Sora refused to let the dark figure escape.

"ROXAS!" Sora shouted desperately.

The figure stopped at that name.

Sora fell to knees, gasping for air. His vision was spinning.

"Ugh..." The hooded boy sighed, walking over the now kneeling Keyblade Master and extending a hand. Sora accepted it, angrily stumbling sloppily to his feet.

"Hey, why were you... running away from me?" he panted, one hand clutching his side, where a cramp had painfully presented itself.

"The ever inquisitive one, aren't you?" came Roxas's cool reply as he pulled off his hood, a smirk decorating his young face as he ran a hand through his messy blonde hair.

"I swear... I could have died from lack of air back there!" Sora exclaimed, a small part of his seemingly-always comical side showing through. "What if I slipped in the rain and hit my head on something? I could have died!"

Roxas' smirk vanished, and it was replaced with a look of utter remorse.

"At least you know you can." he gritted, his blue eyes narrowing, teeth audibly grounding together.

The brunette blinked several times. "I can what?" he asked, confused.

Roxas sighed again, tilting his head back, letting the rain cover his previously dry face.

"Die."

Sora would have jumped if his legs hadn't hurt so much. "W-what?! Whaddaya mean, Roxas?" It was a few moments before the blonde responded, and when he did, his voice sounded oddly... different.

"What I mean is, Sora... You need to wake up."

"Eh?!" The Keyblade Master was ever more confused now.

"I said, you need to wake up, you lazy bum!" The voice was female now.  
Glancing around, Sora tried to locate where the voice had come from. It took a moment for him to realize that the voice had come from Roxas.

"W-what the... Roxas-!" The brunette gave a yelp of surprise when he felt the ground suddenly give out below him, sending him slowly spiraling downward. He tried to grab onto something, but found that everything he touched just melted into black. "R-Roxas!" he screamed, trying to reach up towards the teenager, who was now standing on thin air above him, just above him.

* * *

Sora abruptly sat up, gasping as he almost swallowed a mouthful of sand. 

"'Roxas', what?" came a familiar voice from right above him. Sora jumped so suddenly at the voice that he collided with it's its speaker.

"Gah-! Sora! What the hell was that for?!" Riku groaned as he fell onto the hot sand next to Sora, rubbing his forehead where a large red splotch was starting to appear where he and Sora clonked heads.

Said teenager also rubbed his own aching forehead, whimpering. "Ouch. Sorry, Riku. I was having a weird dream."

Kairi sighed, placing her small hands on her hips. "It must have been a really bad 'dream'. You screamed 'real loud, Sora."

"Uh... Yeah..." he trailed off, glancing at Riku, who was leaning precariously close, his eyes narrow as he stared at Sora's face, his brow furrowed, blue-green eyes staring into what seemed like Sora's very soul.

"You sure it was just a dream, Sora?" the silver haired teenager asked, an eyebrow raised as he stared at the sand which covered his friend's clothes. He looked like he had tossing and turning in his sleep.

"Uh-yeah, Riku, Kairi. It was just a dream, really." The brunette hurriedly jumped to his feet, brushing the sand off of his clothes and out of his slightly lopsided hair.

Neither of them looked satisfied with his hasty response, but on the other hand, they both dropped the subject as Sora presented them with a question of his own.

"So, um... Why'd you wake me up?"

Riku elbowed him in the ribs warningly as Kairi's face grew suddenly fierce.

"Donald and Goofy are here, dummy!" She advanced on Sora, one of her hands drawn into a menacing fist. "And we've been looking for you for ages!"

To Sora, it seemed like Kairi had grown a few dozen feet, towering over him, her arm drawn back imposingly.

"Go, Sora, while you still can!" a voice whispered urgently into the brunette's ear, and Sora looked to his side to see Riku looking at him, his face contorted in mock horror.

Not even turning to glance at Kairi --who he was sure would be eating him alive any second now-- he turned and ran down the beachfront, away from his two childhood friend's.

He could hear Riku's feet pounding into the sand behind him, and Kairi's stomps not far behind. Suddenly, hearing a 'thump', Sora turned to see Riku flailing in the sand, moaning in mock pain.

"Riku!" He ran to his friend's side, attempting to drag him away from the ever-advancing 'Kairi-Monster'. The silver haired teenager put a hand on his chest, batting his long eyelashes melodramatically.

"No, Sora! Leave me behind. Save yourself!" he coughed a few times before slumping onto his back, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as his eyes closed.

Falling to his knees, Sora raised his hands to the sky. "Nooo!"

The two teenager's theatrical death scene was interrupted as Kairi tripped on a rock under the sand, sending her toppling onto the two boys.

"Ow!- My spleen!" Sora shouted in pain.

"Gah!- My long, beautiful, shiny, manly hair!" Riku whined, this time over dramatically.

* * *

"Really, Riku, I don't know how you can stand to keep your hair that long in this heat." Kairi was currently helping Riku detangle his long hair as the trio of friends approached the island's dock. 

Sora followed, laughing occasionally at something said by one of his companions, but he had otherwise stayed silent for the short walk, mulling over his odd dream.

'Why was Roxas acting so weird...?' This was the thought which had repeatedly forced itself to the front of his mind. His 'dream' had been one of the few times Roxas had directly spoken to Sora since they had been reunited after that fateful fight in The World That Never Was.  
'Why'd he seem so...depressed? He was pretty happy sounding last time... But, then again, that was ages ago.'

"-Sora!" Suddenly two oddly shaped bodies slammed into the brunette's own, causing him to slip off of the docking he had only just stepped onto, tumbling backwards into the hot sand.

"Well, gawrsh, Sora, we're sorry!" Came a voice which, until only recently, Sora had become accustomed to hearing everyday.

"We didn't mean to..." said the other voice Sora was used to.

His eyes snapped open as he realized exactly who it was that had knocked him off the dock.

"Donald! Goofy!" The brunette almost shouted as he stumbled to his feet, climbing up onto the dock to be warmly embraced by his two otherworldly friends.

"Are you ready, Sora?" Donald asked as he smoothed the feathers on his face which had been ruffled during their sudden embrace, slightly annoyed when Goofy chuckled next to him.

"Yep!" Sora turned shooting his friends a mock salute. "Riku, Kairi-" He called louder than really necessary. "-It's time to line up for the test!"

Both of his friends looked puzzled as they lined up next to Sora; the redheaded girl dropping a large bag nearby, and his other, silver haired, friend just looked confused.

Donald's face was dead serious as he walked down the line of the trio of friends. He stopped at Sora first, raising a feathered brow in inquiry. In response to this, the brunette offered a large, even grin. "Ready for action, Sir!"

The next person Donald approached was Kairi, who supplied him with a slightly nervous grin. The only person who seemed to be completely clueless was Riku, who just stared blankly down at the talking duck who stood impatiently in front of him.

After about a minute of Donald and Riku staring at each other, Kairi elbowed Riku in the ribs, throwing him a questioning look.

"What?" The blue-green eyed teenager was still staring down at Donald, who was now glaring venomously up at him.

"This ship runs on happy faces." Donald crossed his small arms, tapping his webbed foot impatiently.

"O-oh." Stuttered Riku, blushing, before giving what had to be one of the weirdest smiles Sora had ever seen.

"Alrighty everyone, let's skedaddle!" Goofy chuckled again, opening the airlock and grabbing Kairi's bag before he stepped inside. He was soon followed by Donald, who was still huffing in annoyance.

Riku was about to follow the two individuals when he felt a tug on the back of his shirt. Turning, he saw Kairi, pointing towards the edge of the dock. Sora stood alone on it's edge, his gaze drifting over the sparkling sea.  
As the boards of the wooden deck creaked behind him, he smiled to himself, his eyes still on the sea.

"You know, Riku, Kairi... I think I'm pretty happy that this place will never change."

The redhead was about to say something, but Riku shook his head. "Why's that, Sora?" the blue-green eyed adolescent asked, his hand resting on Sora's shoulder.

Sora turned a wide grin on his face. "'Cause! That means... we can go anywhere, or change in any way... and this place-" He pointed behind him, to the sea. "-will never change. It'll just stay here, like this."

Riku and Kairi exchanged exasperated glances before seizing Sora by the arms and dragging him towards the Gummy ship. "That may be true Sora, but you're over thinking it a bit..." Riku chuckled, winking at him.

"Come on, Sora, you've got a whole universe to save!" Kairi giggled when she saw Sora grimace at Riku's words.

"...Again," he sighed, letting his head droop as his friend's dragged his limp body into the Gummy ship.

"Well... At least you can rely on us to bail you out of a tough situation." Riku pulled Sora to his feet, grinning as he did so. "And... we'll all be on the same side this time, too."

* * *

Sora buckled his chest harness almost unconsciously, chuckling when he saw his two human companions struggling to buckle the straps.  
When they both looked to him for help, Sora couldn't help but laugh quietly as he made a "like this" motion. 

Letting his hand trail over the shiny white material the chair was made out of, the Keyblade Master couldn't help but notice the large, shiny red button which was now on the side of one of the arms.

While he was checking all of the displays, and jotting down a few things in the pilot's log, Donald glanced over at Sora, who was staring dumbly at the crimson button.

"That's the eject button, Sora. Don't push it unless it's an emergency."

'Well that's a new feature...' The brunette thought as he remembered a few particularly painful incidents that had resulted from his faulty flying skills.

"...Got it..." He snatched his hand away from the button, instead resting it on the chair's arm, where it belonged, apparently.

"So... um... Where ar-" Kairi was fidgeting nervously, her eyes scanning over the entire of the inside of the ship, or at least, what she could see from her high-backed white chair.

"-Are we going into space?" An excited voice suddenly burst from beside Kairi.  
Everyone gawked incredulously at Riku, who was laughing nervously, his head down. "Um... Never mind."

Seeing his silver haired friend's embarrassed blush, Sora elected to change the subject... sort of. "So, where are we going?"

"We're going to see King Mickey!" Goofy proclaimed happily.

All three of the childhood friends looked to each other, wondering the same thing at that moment. 'What does King Mickey need our help with?'

"We're entering warp mode now," came Donald's voice from the front of the cockpit, giving Sora just enough time to prepare himself for the feeling of being sucked into his chair.

Kairi and Riku, however, where not prepared for this, and both gave and yelp as they were pressed back into their chairs forcibly.

After a few minutes of this, the Gummy ship unexpectedly gave a lurch, the pressure inside of it returning to normal.

"...Are we there yet?" asked Riku weakly. He was holding his stomach and seemed to have grown several shades paler.

"I'm... not sure I like this 'warp mode'..." Kairi seemed to have taken the pressure slightly better than Riku had, but she looked nauseous none the less.

Sora was alarmed however, as the Gummy ship had never before in all of his travels stopped that suddenly.

"Donald? I don't remember the Gummy ship doing this be-"

Without notice, the whole cabin was suddenly bathed in red light. It was almost pouring out from bulbs which had come out of the walls from small fitted holes. Sora and his friends were forced to cover their ears as sirens began to scream from the main control panel.

"W-What's going on?!" Kairi her voice high pitched, obviously scared.

"I'm working on it!" Donald shouted, his feathered fingers moving with great accuracy over the blinking panels and buttons. It was only a few seconds before Donald told them the dreadful news, but to Sora and his childhood friends, the wait seemed like hours.

"We're heading...straight into a meteor shower!" Donald said in shock.

Sora found that his mouth was dry, and his voice cracked as he tried to talk. He was incapable, robbed of all speech.

'What can I do?' Was the question which echoed in his mind in what seemed like an endless loop.

It was Riku who spoke first, his voice cracking as he shouted over the warning sirens.  
"What can we do?!"

Donald pushed a button which turned the entire front wall of the ship into a monitor, which was currently displaying a large group of meteors heading directly towards them.

"Gawrsh..." was all that Goofy could say as they watched one of the meteors hit another, cracking into many pieces. They had warped right into the middle of it all. And they were surrounded, just flying through it would be mad. And as the moment went by the meteors got closer.

Something occurred to Sora as he watched this. "D-Donald! We can eject!?" Sora shouted, glancing around for approval as he saw his friend's eyes light up with desperate hope.

"It's... It's the only way!" Donald pushed several shining buttons on the display, and it changed from a view of space to the outside of Destiny Islands.

A robotic, female voice unexpectedly boomed from all of their chairs, emotionless and uncaring of their dire situation.

"Please make sure you are entirely in the pod's zone. Pod 03, adjust." A ring of light circled around each of the chairs, with enough distance for someone injured to sit comfortably. Riku hastily adjusted his posture, tucking his long legs inside the circle, until the red circle around his chair turned the same colour as the rest.

"Press the red button located on the right arm of the chair. Good luck." Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, and Sora glanced at each other, nodding nervously as they all pushed the buttons at once. Immediately, domes of blue-white light enveloped them, solidifying into an egg shape which lit up with lights and terminals, then launched just in time to hear the ship get slammed.

"Sora!" Donald's voice reverberated off, or rather, out of, the walls of the 'egg', and the voices of Riku, Kairi, and Goofy could also be heard from different speakers located near Sora's head.

"I'm here!" He cried loudly, his fears that something might have happened to his friend's the moment he lost sight of them dissipating.

"Sora, we're heading back to Destiny Islands...it'll take a few days, but we can talk to each other through this connection, okay? We'll contact the King once we get ba-"

Donald's voice was droned out by a loud 'CRACK', which just happened to come from the side of Sora's escape pod. Followed by a small hissing sound coming from the side of impact, his light turned red.

"Sora?!" Echoed the now-garbled and crackling voices of his comrades.

A deep, mechanical voice, this time male, issued abruptly from the walls off all the pods, causing Sora to jerk in his cramped seat.

"Pod 06 has been critically damaged. Aborting to planet closest to current location. Pod's 01 through 05 will continue predetermined course."

"What?!" Shouted Sora, unbelieving.

He could hear Goofy and Donald's voices urging him to prepare himself for turmoil, but the desperate, scared screams of Riku and Kairi overrode them.

"_Sora!_"

"Sora, Don't!"

"SORA!"

Riku and Kairi's voices were cut off as all of the lights went off in Sora's pod. The only thing keeping Sora from facing absolute darkness was the small monitor in front of him, which displayed a view of outside the pod.

Sora could only watch as his friends' pods sped off in the opposite direction of his. He was immediately hit with a wave of depression, mostly concerning the fact that he had been separated from Riku and Kairi yet again.

He felt angry. He wanted to punch the monitors in front of him, but knew that would just make his situation even worse.

"Dammit!" The brunette swore, scrunching his eyes up in frustration.  
He didn't know why, but he was angry with himself. He knew he shouldn't be, but that didn't change the fact that he felt like a helpless idiot right then, and wanted nothing but to be reunited with his friends.

'But, I'm not helpless,' a little voice told him from inside his head.  
'Really?, 'cause I feel pretty useless right now,' he thought back to himself.  
'I can breathe. I can move. I am alive,' it reminded him cheerily.  
'But, that doesn't change the fact that I can't do anything!' he shouted mentally to the voice in his head.

It then replied: 'I can live to find Riku and Kairi again.'

Sora raised his previously downcast head, considering what the voice had said. A look of sheer determination appeared on his face. Sora swore he must have been glowing with it.

"I will not give up," he told himself, his eyes focused on the display in front of him. "Not while I can still fight, not while I'm still alive."

There was a small blinking tag on the screen, pointing to what seemed to be a planet, which was growing ever closer.

"Earth, huh?" The Keyblade Master breathed as his eyes scanned the name, he gasped in awe at the sheer mass of ocean on the planet before him.

"Man, I hope I don't land in the ocean," groaned the brunette as he rested his head on his hand, watching the planet as his egg-shaped pod sped towards it, traveling faster every second.

Sora was caught off guard when the walls around him began to shudder, becoming warm to the touch. "W-what?!" He had begun to sweat when a synthesized male voice broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Breaching atmosphere. No suitable body of water within range. Prepare for collision in T-minus two minutes."

"W-what?!" he shouted again, his eyes wide when he saw what lie below him. Minuscule blocks were below him. No, now they weren't minuscule, they were squares, with dots on them. A square bigger than the rest was a lively green, and there were no 'dots' on it. In a second, the blocks had turned into smaller blocks of tops of buildings. Soon Sora could now see houses, large and small.  
--And then, in a millisecond, he could see the field he was approaching. It was away from all of the buildings, which Sora could only assume was a town or small city.

Not that he had much time to wonder, as he was zooming straight towards the grassy ground. He vaguely remembered screaming before being knocked unconscious by the force of the sudden impact.

* * *

Sora awoke in a state of panic. 

"I'm alive, right?" He inhaled, sucking in as much as air as he could. "I'm alive. Okay." he assured himself as he took in his surroundings. The pod seemed to have slowed down just enough to have ejected him upon impact, sending him about twenty feet away from the crash site.

Rubbing the back of his neck, where he was sure there would be a bruise, he stood up shakily. "Sweet, sweet ground," his voice cracked as he spoke to himself, unnerved.

"Okay, I'm alive. Now, to find a way back to my island... Back to Riku and Kairi," he whispered to himself as he began to walk in the direction of the city he had seen as the pod fell to place called Earth.

As Sora walked, he repeatedly glanced over his shoulder nervously, feeling as if something was following him. He would think he heard a noise, a rustle in the long grass, but when he would turn and be greeted by, well... nothing.  
The brunette flexed his hand, searching inside of his heart for the Keyblade. He was immensely relieved when he felt its warmth in his hand, even though he didn't summon it.

Sighing happily, though he was still slightly on edge by that feeling of being watched, he was content just knowing that he could summon the Keyblade.

The fact that he had just stepped off of grass and onto pavement helped too. He could see the city a walk-able distance in front of him, and he hurried on.

"Eh?"

Sora stopped when he spotted a sign on the side of the deserted road he had been walking down, and was immensely relieved that it was printed in a language that he could barely understand. There would be almost nothing worse than being stuck on a world where everyone spoke gibberish.

"Kara..." The Keyblade Master frowned, leaning closer as he tried to make out the faded letters.

"Karakura Town. Hmm, nice name," he said to himself as he began walking again, looking forward to seeing another human being.

When Sora finally entered the city, the sky had already begun to darken, turning quickly from the cheery blue Sora had awoken to, to a warm shade of orange.  
'One sky, one destiny.' The words from Kairi's letter rang through his head, causing him to grimace as he was reminded of his friends. And how far away they were now.

'Now's not the time...' he chided himself as he navigated a through particularly thick crowd. Sora had been a little overwhelmed when he had seen how busy and... _moving_ the crowd was on what he assumed to be the city's main street. He had eventually had to force himself to steer a course through the small sea of people.

In the throng of people, a flash of bright red hair caught his eye. Turning, Sora could see a thick mane of red hair bobbing through the crowd towards a small side street.

Memories of the Organization XIII member and Axel's last moments flooded Sora's mind, he couldn't help but follow the red blur into the shaded street.

'Why do I even think of Axel anymore? He's been dead since he used his being to defeat those Nobodi-' Sora thought's were interrupted by those of someone inside of his mind.

'Don't say that.'

'Eh? Roxas?' Sora thought back, confused at Roxas's sudden interjection, as he swiftly turned down an ally. He wasn't given an answer, but it wasn't as if he had the time to ask Roxas again, as he had just ran into the man he had been following.

"Why are you following me, kid?" a deep voice asked, and Sora looked up into the face of the red haired man.  
Jagged black tattoo's replaced the man's eyebrows, zigzagging their way up into his hairline. A dark, shaded visor hid his eyes from Sora, but the brunette could tell from the way the man was leering, the way his brows were furrowed... Well, the brunette might be in trouble.

"I... um, I thought you were someone I knew. S-sorry." Sora rubbed the back of his head, grinning nervously as he backed slowly away from the man, until he felt his back against what Sora deducted to be an extremely smelly dumpster.

The red haired man frowned, looking very unconvinced. He was about to say something when a strong male's voice rang out through the street.

"OI, RENJI! STOP SMELLIN' THE GARBAGE AND GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!" The voice came from out of Sora's view, but he could tell whoever it was wasn't that far down the street.

"I'M ON MY WAY, KEEP YOUR GODDAMN GIGAI ON!" the man identified as 'Renji' yelled back, glancing back at Sora for a moment.

"You should get out of here, it's not safe," was all he said before sprinting off in the direction of the first yell.

Watching the mans hastily retreating back disappear Sora went into deep thought.

"Not... safe?" Sora whispered to himself, wondering if it was possible for Heartless to exist on this world.

"Man, I hope they aren-" His words were stuck in his throat as he felt the air grow heavy around him. The one light in the back ally he had run into flickered, leaving Sora victim to intervals of almost complete darkness in the dwindling twilight.

Summoning the Keyblade, the brunette spun around, scanning the alley for any Heartless that might be creeping up on him.  
'Why...does the air...feel so heavy?' the Keyblade Master thought as his eyes strained to catch any movement. Something moved directly in front of blue eyed teenager, but it was hard to see.

'A blur?' Sora's eyes scanned the 'blurred' air, jumping back when he saw what had been masked, even if it was only for a second. It had been immense. Was it a heartless?

"Wh-what are you?!" he called into the darkness, occasionally seeing a blur in the air around him.

"Ah, it seems you can see me!" the blur roared, its deep voice showing it was clearly delighted. "...That means your soul will be quite delectable!!!"

Sora dodged its first attack out of pure luck, jumping out of the way of an enormous claw at the last moment possible. The thing's form had become visible again, if only slightly fuzzy at its edges. It had to be at least a dozen feet high, its beaked mouth hanging open menacingly as it roared in laughter.

An immense hole was where the missing heart normally was on a Heartless, and it glared down at him through a bone mask.

'W-what is this monster?!' He thought, panicking as he tried to dodge another one of the giant thing's attacks. It wasn't enough, and he could feel his flesh tear as the monster's giant claws glanced his shoulder. Sora cried out in pain, the brunette's shoulder spraying blood onto the dumpster behind him.

'I should have been able to dodge that... Why do I feel so heavy?'

Sora spun out of the way of another one of the monster's attacks, and this time he had a counterattack ready.  
He swung the Keyblade down on the thing's outstretched arm, only to gasp in surprise as the Keyblade passed right through the monstrous arm.

"What?!" seemed to be Sora's word-of-the-day as he couldn't hold back his astonishment at the Keyblade actually not doing any damage to his enemy. Nothing at all.

'Why didn't the Keyblade hurt it?!'

Said monster boomed with laughter again, the large bone mask which covered its face trembling. The thing caught Sora off guard as it swung its leg out of nowhere, hitting him in the stomach. The brunette felt all of his breath knocked out of him as he was sent flying, into the open dumpster. As he hit the inside of the large metal container, the top slammed down above him, effectively trapping him in his weak state.

Sora could faintly hear yells outside of the dumpster before he lost consciousness, his own blood seeping into the garbage around his beaten body.

* * *

He awoke the morning after with a pained groan. 

'Man... my head hurts... no, everything hurts...' Remembering what had happened before he passed out, he opened his eyes, sitting up abruptly. His body screamed in protest, waves of pain assaulting him.

'That monster, where is it? Where am I?!' He tried to squint through eyes which were scrunched up in pain, and he gasped as he felt something warm covering his arm.

"Idiot! You reopened your wound!" came a harsh male voice from Sora's side.

Snapping his head to the side, the blue eyed adolescent saw a rather miffed looking orange haired teenager walking to the side of the bed he was laying in.

'I'm in a bed? And my wounds are bandaged...?' Sora was extremely confused as the bright haired man kneeled next to the bed, pulling several pieces of gauze and bandages from a conveniently placed box. 'But... Where's that big heartless?!' he thought frantically, his eyes scanning the normal-looking room.

"I was attacked by a huge heartless! Do you know were it went? I need to kill it before it takes any innocent's hearts...!" Sora's voice cracked as he tried to speak loudly. He coughed, feeling pain near his stomach.

The orange haired teenager looked confused for a moment, before raising an eyebrow incredulously. "Heartless? Taking peoples hearts? What the hell's a Heartless? Do you mean a Hollow?" His voice dropped low as he leaned towards the injured boy. "Do you know what Hollows are?"

"It was kinda blurry... but it had a huge hole in it's stomach..." Sora trailed off as he saw the orange haired adolescent's eyes widen.

"So, you can see hollows then?" the orange haired boy said surprised.

"Ya," Sora said simply. "But barely."

"Interesting. Well you're lucky I came and killed it when I did or that thing would have eaten you... or worse... I can't believe a kid like you even survived."

Ignoring the small insult, Sora thought to himself. 'How does he know so much about that monster... He couldn't be in league with it, could he? But... he said he killed it, wait, how did he kill it?' Sora's mind was racing questions, and he was still slightly dizzy from blood loss, and was hit by a wave of nausea. Never mind that. He'd ask when he could think more clearly.  
'But just who is this guy?' Sora paused to take a look at him. 'Well, only one way to find out...'

"Who are you?" Sora asked, fidgeting as the orange haired man tore his eyes away from the brunette's openly bleeding wounds to meet his sea blue eyes. The other smiled smugly.

"Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki."

_To Be Continued_.

* * *

**This fic was brought to you by: 'Chained to a Kiwi' aka Fai, Kuriko, and Yashi  
Fic plot, art, and beta-read by Lizeth  
Co-proofed by: 'Custom Rewind Corn' aka Zubon **

As you can see, a lot of people put a _lot_ of love into this fic, so we really hope you enjoyed it! Chapter 2 is on the way. For more update information, check out Chained-to-a-kiwi's deviantart homepage!

The category for this fic might change, so just remember the author name and title. XD


	2. A Somebody's Nobody

**All the King's Horses  
By: Chained-to-a-Kiwi  
Chapter 2: A Somebody's Nobody**

A group of shadowy figures kneeled on the darkly gleaming tile, their heads bowed as they waited in silence for 'His' answer. They seemed naught but a dark smudge below him as he looked upon the cloaked group from his high throne, contemplating their abnormal plea.

Brushing a piece of his dark brown hair out of his field of vision, the man on the throne smiled to himself as he rose from his gleaming white seat, clearing his throat. The foremost cloaked figure below him stood, and though his face was studiously blank, the shadows did nothing to inhibit the enthroned man's vision. 'He' could see that something belied the hooded man's proud stature; a desperate hope was plainly visible in the mysterious requester's deep orange eyes.

"-And you're sure you can handle this 'Keyblade Master' by yourself?" 'His' voice rang throughout the white, high-arched halls. He commanded attention with his every movement, showed grace and power with every word he spoke.

There was a short silence before one of the figures cloaked in black behind the 'leader' chuckled as he, too, stood. His hood slipped away from his face, revealing irrationally red hair jaggedly framing his bright green eyes.

"It shouldn't be that hard, there are thirteen of us... uh, almost. Memorize it." The redhead grinned self-confidently as his eyes slid over his still bowed companions and his stoic leader.

Smiling, 'He' looked at the people that he towered over, atop his opalescent pedestal. He was God here.

"I find this... camaraderie extremely rewarding for myself... Especially if I am to obtain that soul I spoke of..." 'He' trailed off, glancing at the redhead below him, whose face had lit up with anticipation for a moment, before it was masked by his haughty grin once more.

"...and I accept," 'He' finished, his gaze now resting on the group's leader, who had pulled his hood down to reveal semi-long silver hair.

Shaking the mane of silver spikes away from his face, the leader didn't smile like the rest of his group. He stared up at the man who stood upon the tall pedestal, his worried eyes searching the aristocratic brunette's face for any sign of treachery. That would have been easy, if it had not been for the glaringly obvious fact that the man he had just made a pact with absolutely reeked with said deceit.

Setting his jaw resolutely, the orange-eyed man forced a smile onto his face.

'_This is the only way,_' he told himself as he motioned for the rest of his group to stand. The rustling of thick cloth could be heard as nine men and one woman lowered their dark hoods. At this, the dark skinned leader bowed low. Eleven figures mirrored his action, their heads inclined appreciatively towards the brunette who towered above them.

Xemnas' voice rang clearly through the opal halls as he addressed the man who might very well make them _real_ again.

"...Thank you, sir Aizen."

* * *

**-Karakura Town-**

Sora stared skeptically at Ichigo for a few moments, almost unwilling to believe what he has just been told.

"So..." the brunette started, drumming his fingers on his savior's desk, which was conveniently located next to the bed he was currently sitting on. "You're a... substitute Soul Reaper..."

Ichigo nodded, wrapping a clean length of bandage around Sora's stomach.

"You send 'plus' souls to this 'Soul Society' place, using 'Soul Burial'...and you kill those 'Hollow' things," the Keybearer finished, trying to ignore the ache in his wounded abdomen as it was once again tightly bandaged.

"I don't kill them," the orange haired teenager corrected, fastening a butterfly-style clip onto the end of the bandage before stepping back to admire his handiwork. "I 'extinguish' them. And when I do that... they're sent to Soul Society to live in peace with the other soul residents."

"That makes sense, sort of..." Sora rested his head in one hand, his thumb and pointer finger holding his chin in place as he contemplated the information he had been presented.

'_It's sort of like what I do...I use the Keyblade to release captured hearts, and they then go to Kingdom Hearts... I wonder what happens to the hearts once they get there? Not that it really matters... but, I wonder..._'

After a moment of contemplation the brunette pointed to the drawings which were scattered around him. "No offense, but...why do these drawings suck so badly?"

Snickering, Ichigo snatched the pictures up from the bed. He'd used some of Rukia's old doodles to help explain exactly what he did as a soul reaper and just what Hollows were. Ichigo then stuffed them back into the drawer he had previously extracted them from.

"Don't ask me. I wasn't the one who drew them."

A rather awkward silence would have followed after that, that is, if Sora's stomach hadn't broken in by growling unashamedly before the silence could even start.

"Hey," Ichigo was addressing Sora as he rooted through a large pile of clothes on the desk in a corner of the square room. "You should go downstairs and eat something. The walk shouldn't hurt you, as long as you're careful going down the stairs."

Sora felt a surge of gratefulness at the orange-haired adolescent's hospitality. He couldn't count all the times he and his otherworldly friends had been refused shelter just because of how they looked. '_But...what will I do if he asks where I came from? What if he sees the Keyblade? What if---_'

"Do you have clothes?" came Ichigo's slightly annoyed voice from in front of the brunette.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Sora found that Ichigo was peering at him from across the room, his eyebrows furrowed. With a quick glance around the room, Sora found that both his black jacket and his dark blue v-neck shirt were drenched in blood, thrown haphazardly into the same trashcan that now held his old bloodied bandages. This was also around the same time that Sora realized he was wearing only a pair of thin underpants that he normally wore to keep the chill at bay when wearing his loose black attire.

"I...uh..." Sora shrugged, scratching his head before grinning sheepishly up at the brown-eyed Soul Reaper. "Nope."

Grumbling, Ichigo stared at the Keybearer for a moment before grabbing a few pieces of clothing and chucking them across the room at Sora's head. Quick reflexes were all that saved the brunette from receiving a face-full of clothes.

"Thanks," he said quietly as he slid off the edge of the bed, testing one foot, and then the other. Thankfully, neither were sprained from his excursion the night before.

'_Well, that's comforting,_' the blue eyed teenager thought as he shrugged on the clothes Ichigo had thrown at him. First was a fitted pair of dark blue jeans that were a tad bit too long, forcing Sora to roll up the bottoms so that he could walk safely. Next was a tight, sleeveless black shirt emblazoned in with the word 'Destati' in bright red letters. The word vaguely reminded him of something far off in his memory, but it was lost to him at the moment.

Sora looked to Ichigo, who had changed as well. He now wore a clean pair of fitted jeans, and a tight fitting blue t-shirt which read 'NICE VIBE'. He motioned to Sora as he saw that the brunette was finished changing, and soon they both exited the room.

As they descended the stairs from what had to have been Ichigo's bedroom, Sora glanced around, distantly wondering where his shoes had gone. Their footsteps were almost silent as they descended the stairs, excluding the occasional creak of an old floorboard.  
As they traveled through a short hallway, Sora couldn't help but glance in one of the rooms as they passed it. The room contained rows of hospital beds, several of which looked like they had been recently occupied.

'_Ooookay... That was sort of creepy,_' he thought absentmindedly, wondering what he had gotten himself into this time.

The orange haired teenager had seen the brunette glance into the room and placed a hand on Sora's back, propelling him forward into the next room.

"Don't mind those. This is the Kurosaki Medical Clinic as well as my family's home."

"Oh," was all that Sora could think to say as they entered the next room. His stomach immediately grumbled in response to the rich smell of pancakes that was drifting from an adjoining room.

The Keybearer, who had always had a weak spot for food, grinned in anticipation. "Man, that smells great!"

Before they could enter what Sora thought to be the kitchen or dining room, Ichigo blocked the doorway with an outstretched arm.

"Wait. Before we go, I should probably warn you about my dad." At Sora's quizzical expression, the substitute Soul Reaper rolled his eyes and continued. "My old man can get...a little, uh...weird," Ichigo seemed to be having trouble finding words to describe his father, and his brows were furrowed yet again. It seemed to be a fixed expression on the teenager.

Sora was about to ask what the seemingly older teen meant by 'weird', but as soon as he opened his mouth, another voice sounded from above them.

"GOOD--"

Ichigo sighed, scratching is head in long-suffering frustration. "Here it comes."

"--MORNING--"

"H-here what comes?!" Sora was immediately on guard, but the orange haired teen just rolled his eyes again, clenching his right hand into a tight fist.

"--**ICHIGO!!!**"

The blue-eyed Keybearer turned back to Ichigo just in time to see a black haired man fall from the ceiling, his foot aiming directly for the brown-eyed teenager's head.

All words were snatched from Sora before he could even think to try warning Ichigo, but what happened next was what amazed the teenager the most. Ichigo reached up and grabbed the man's ankle, using the kinetic energy of the falling man's own body to his advantage. He twisted the man's ankle, slamming him into the floor.

Sora couldn't be any more bewildered, not to mention mortified when the man on the floor started laughing manically, his arms clenched into fists.

"Yes, my son! Grow, blossom into a powerful young man! Surpass me in all but my handsome looks!" the man shouted, jumping to his feet exuberantly despite his assumed wounds.

Ichigo grumbled something Sora couldn't hear before gently grabbing the brunette's shoulder and leading him into the kitchen. The Keybearer could hear Ichigo's father noisily following them, proclaiming something about the youth 'these days' to a large wall-poster of an orange haired woman.

As soon as Sora entered the room, he was assaulted yet again by the delicious smell of pancakes. However, before he could locate the exact location of these said pancakes, he was confronted by a young black haired girl.

"So, you're the hobo Ichi' found?" Her eyebrows furrowed in a surprisingly Ichigo-like way.

'_If that guy back there was Ichigo's dad, then this must be his sister, or something...But, wait---_' Sora blinked, trying to process what he had just heard.

"W-what? I'm not a hobo!" he protested.

"Right, boy-who-lives-in-our-dumpster." The girl rolled her eyes, plopping down unceremoniously into a chair. It was one of many which surrounded the large table in the middle of the room.

"Hey, that isn't true! I was attacked and thrown in there by a Heartless! Erhm...I mean, Hol-" Sora trailed off as he saw Ichigo waving his hands behind the girl. He was mouthing 'No'.

"Heartless? Is that a new gang?" she asked obliviously, slinging an arm over the chair next to her, slumping into her chair comfortably.

"Wha- um...yeah," Sora stuttered lamely, looking to the orange haired teenager for some assistance. '_Does his family not know about Hollows?_'

"Leave him alone, Karin," Ichigo stated, ignoring the stare from Sora as he sat down at the table as well. He motioned for the Keybearer to sit beside him. Sora did so, albeit very carefully. It wouldn't do to reopen his wounds again.

"So, you're from out of town?" the tiny orange haired girl who Sora later learned to be Yuzu asked politely as she handed him a large plate of hot pancakes.

"You could say that..." he mumbled through a full mouth of food.  
'_More like 'out of world'..._' Sora thought as he silently ate his breakfast, thankful that he wasn't asked many questions about what had happened to him.

During breakfast he was properly introduced to Isshin, Ichigo's father, and the orange haired Soul Reaper's two younger sisters, Karin and Yuzu.

'_No mother..._' Sora mulled over the information he had discerned from how motherly Yuzu was acting, despite her age. '_Well, I shouldn't be surprised. Just because I have two parents, doesn't mean that everyone does. The world isn't perfect, after all,_' he reminded himself soberly. '_Speaking of worlds...how the heck am I going to get off of this one?_'

* * *

Ichigo glanced at the brunette, his brows still furrowed. 

'_What kind of a person is this 'Sora'? Could he be one of Aizen's men?_' Ichigo snorted as Sora momentarily choked from stuffing too many pancakes in his mouth at once, making Yuzu fuss worriedly as she handed the boy a tall glass of juice. '_'Kay, so that's doubtful. But where did he come from if he didn't even know where he was? And that thing he was holding when Renji and I found him..._' The substitute Soul Reaper munched on a piece of fruit thoughtfully as he remembered how odd-looking it had been.

At the 'hilt' it had been shaped like any normal sword, with a double hand guard and everything, but from there it just became bizarre. Instead of a blade there was a large key-shaped end, which had been glowing slightly until Sora was safely removed from the dumpster.

As soon as the brunette's unconscious body had been lifted out of the trash and waste, the 'Keyblade', as Ichigo deemed it, had disappeared, leaving nothing behind. Renji had been just as confused as him, but they had agreed that the boy's life took priority over whatever the 'thing' had been.

It took a moment for Ichigo to pull himself out of his thoughts and realize that everyone at the table was now silent, and everyone but Yuzu was staring at him. ...Or more pointedly at something below the edge of the table. One of the pockets of his jeans was glowing slightly, and the teenager angrily pulled small skull-badge out of his pocket

"_Horror! Horror!_" the thing repeated again and again, the empty eyes of its stylized skull flashing. The tiny voice carried across the room surprisingly well as Ichigo jumped to his feet, cursing.

"Crap," the teenager glanced around at his confused family and the even more confused Sora. "Uh, I gotta go! School thing! Be back later!" He tossed the words over his shoulder as he dashed out of the room.

Skidding into the alley next to his home, Ichigo shoved a small orb into his mouth, swallowing it and immediately feeling his spirit separate from his body.

"Kon, you know what to do!" This was all he said before dashing out of the alley and towards the main street, his black and white robes rustling in the early morning wind.

Ichigo almost ran into Renji as he glanced around the deserted street, only stopping himself from colliding with the tall redhead by jumping nimbly to the side.

Renji didn't look surprised, only slightly worried as he too glanced around the quiet area. "You got one too, huh?"

The orange haired teenager nodded, gesturing absentmindedly to the badge on his shoulder.

"There seems to be three Hollows. Two at the south end of the Rukongai district, and one on the west side of Mabuchi district... I'll take the first one. Rukia might need backup." The red-haired Soul Reaper didn't wait for Ichigo's confirmation before dashing off down the street, his footsteps echoing loudly on the pavement. Ichigo immediately burst into a run in the opposite direction.

'_I do this almost everyday. Get the message, find the Hollow around the coordinates I receive from Renji or Rukia, extinguish them, and above all, make sure no innocents are harmed. It should feel normal...Why does it feel so odd today?_'

He glanced around for civilians as he ran, prepared to defend them if a Hollow appeared. They couldn't see him, as he was only a spirit in essence, but that didn't change the fact he would protect them. There was no one in sight, however, as this was a fairly unpopulated area of Karakura.

'_Why would a damn Hollow appear here if there's no one for them to attack?_' Questions and suspicions started to clutter Ichigo's head, and he angrily pushed them away, forcing himself to pay close attention to his surroundings so that he wouldn't miss the Hollow.

Feeling the air pressure lurch around him, he slid around a corner to see a large centipede-like Hollow, which charged in the opposite direction as soon as it saw him, towards an old wrecked building.

Swearing, Ichigo dashed after it, his Zanpakuto now drawn.

"Hey, ugly! Get your ass back over here!"

The Hollow stopped, turning and trying to crush him with its many feet. Ichigo easily dodged the attack, splitting the Hollow straight down the middle with one slash of his sword. The thing screamed before dematerializing, leaving Ichigo in silence.

'_Nice one, Zangetsu,_' he mentally thanked his sword, looking around for any trace of more Hollows. The report had said only one was in this area, but the substitute Soul Reaper had learned to always be ready for more attacks.

Ichigo was suddenly struck with the odd feeling of being watched. Spinning around, his expert eyes scanned the area surrounding him. Although his search wielded no definite results, he couldn't shake the odd feeling that there was something watching him. He hated the feeling. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and made him grind his teeth in frustration.

"Show yourself!" Ichigo finally shouted angrily, pissed at the fact that something was hiding itself from him. He wasn't really expecting an answer, and most definitely wasn't expecting it to come from right _behind_ him.

"No need to shout," came the deep voice of a man from behind a large pile of wrecked building.

Ichigo turned just in time to see the man step out from behind the twisted metal. The newcomer's solid black coat swaying as the man stepped forward, pulling down the hood of the garment to reveal long black dreadlocks, all but a few strands swept back into a long ponytail. Dark blue eyes glinted as the man's mouth turned up in a sneer at the substitute Soul Reaper who stood before him.

"Who are you?" Ichigo's hands tightened around Zangetsu, ready for combat at any moment.

The black cloaked man's sneer turned into a toothy grin, his hand snapping to the side as a long purple spear appeared in it, several more of the spears hovering in the air around him. They were all pointed towards Ichigo.

"Number Three. Xaldin."

* * *

Sora watched in confusion as the teenager abruptly left the room, a rather harried look on his face. 

'_What the heck was that about?_' the brunette thought as he quickly excused himself, almost running down the hall Ichigo had left by. He found what seemed to be the front door and bound out into the early morning air.

'_So that's where my shoes went!_' Sora slipped his feet easily into the rather large sneakers, which he found in a small pile next to several other pairs of shoes. Quickly tightening the buckles on the ankles, he looked around just in time to see Ichigo's retreating figure in the distance.

Sora bound after the other teenager, waving his arms in an attempt to get Ichigo's attention.

"Ichigo, wait!" His cries were unheard or ignored as Sora's target kept running, his long legs carrying him farther and faster than the Keybearer's. Sora soon lost sight of Ichigo, and the only thing that kept him from feeling lost was the occasional flash of orange hair just outside his immediate vision.

'Man, how can he run so fast?' thought the adolescent as he panted, clutching his stomach. The wound hadn't reopened, but it was still quite sore.

"Ichigooo!" he called again, sighing when he wasn't answered. After taking a few short steps forward, Sora heard a familiar sound in the distance: the sounds of steel crashing against steel.

'_Sounds like a fight...!_' Sora ran in the direction he had heard the sound come from, his footsteps almost silent compared to the crashing noises coming from somewhere ahead of him.

As the young Keybearer rounded another corner, he saw a wayward flash of light on metal. His quick reflexes were the only thing that saved him from being impaled as something shot straight towards him. Gasping to regain the breath that had been knocked out of him by the dodge, he glanced in the direction of the thing that had shot at him.

A long, deep purple spear was embedded into the concrete where he had been standing only a moment before, and the shine of the metal almost blinded him as he looked upon it.

'_That spear...looks almost like..._' Sora jumped to his feet as he heard more sounds of battle ahead. Glancing back to where the spear had been, he found it was gone, only the slice in the concrete proving it had ever been there in the first place. Fighting off unwelcome memories, the brunette dashed towards where he had heard the most recent sounds of battle.

'_It can't be...It can't be...!_' Sora tried to reassure himself with those words, but he only succeeded in plunging himself into more worry. He summoned the Keyblade, just to be safe.

Rounding another corner and skidding to a halt at the entrance of an old wrecked building, Sora couldn't help but let out something that sounded like a cross between a gasp and a restrained sob.

A ways in front of him, Xaldin stood, his arms crossed triumphantly as he approached Ichigo, who was currently held down by two fully cloaked Organization members, not to mention several of Xaldin's own Ginus Spears pinning the orange haired Soul Reaper down by his thick clothes.

Sora found himself unable to move as he watched the cloaked man come ever closer to Ichigo.

'_This isn't possible. This can't be happening!_' Sora's brain told him he had to move, had to help the person who had saved his life, but his feet wouldn't budge. '_I defeated the Organization! They're dead, gone!_' He was shaking now, his eyes wide. '_Everyone helped...King Mickey, Riku, Donald and Goofy...and Ansem the Wise, he even sacrificed himself to---!_' He couldn't even finish that thought when the familiar whoosh of a dark portal opening jarred Sora out of his stupor.

Another black-cloaked figure emerged from the swirling abyss, immediately walking towards Ichigo, who was valiantly trying, but failing to free himself from the grasp of the Organization members. The person swept off his hood, revealing a carefully preened head of dirty blonde shoulder length hair. A smirk decorated the slim, angular face of the man Sora couldn't recognize, as the newcomer's green eyes found Ichigo's angry brown ones.

"So... you're Kurosaki." The man's voice was even and indifferent as he reached into one of his cloak's pockets, pulling out a small orb before taking several more steps towards the struggling teenager.

"So what?! Let me go, you bastards!" Ichigo's legs flailed as he tried to knock the two people holding him off balance, but he couldn't break free from the strong grip of the larger people holding him down.

"I'm afraid that what you ask is impossible at this point," the blonde man replied calmly as he stepped even closer, holding out the shining orb so that it was level with his eyes. "Lexaeus, Luxord, kindly stand him up, will you?"

The two named people stood, dragging Ichigo into a standing position, the top layer of his Soul Reaper robes tearing as he was wrenched away from the long spears.

Sora knew something was about to happen when he saw the blonde man smile. Without thinking, he began to run towards Ichigo and the men, Keyblade held in front of him as he ran.

At that moment, it didn't matter to Sora that Organization XIII had somehow returned. It didn't occur to him that he might be charging to his death. All that mattered was that someone, although he had only known this someone for a short while, was in immediate danger.

He acted without thinking, pushing Ichigo out of the way just as the blonde man's hand crushed the orb, its particles showering over not only Sora, but unfortunately Ichigo as well.

Lexaeus and Luxord immediately jumped back, releasing Ichigo, who fell to the ground in an untidy heap, gasping. "Crap! Vexen, we weren't told of this!" swore the muddy-red haired man known as Lexaeus as he stumbled towards Vexen, who was already opening a dark portal.

"Retreat," Vexen said quietly, trying to keep his voice even as he addressed his two remaining companions. Xaldin had already left via a dark portal.

Sora could feel his consciousness slipping away, and he struggled to crawl over to Ichigo, whose eyes were unfocused and barely open. The brunette tried to speak, tried to ask if Ichigo was okay, but discovered he just felt so _tired_...

'_Something is missing_,' was their last chilling realization, before simultaneously slipping into an unnatural and unwanted sleep.

* * *

_Roxas' eyebrows raised incredulously at the blonde girl's words, his mouth gaping for a few moments before he could finally respond. _

"Wait, wait, **wait**! Lemme get this straight... You're telling me to freakin' **chill**?!"

Naminé nodded slowly, not really looking at her companion, her eyes instead focused on the drawing pad she held in one hand. The other was delicately holding a small coloured pencil, its tip making small scratching noises as she sketched the blonde teenager who stood before her.

In this short silence, Roxas realized how harsh his words might have sounded. Shuffling his feet uncomfortably, his eyes scanned the floor. "Uh...what I meant was..."

Naminé looked up when she heard her friend's slightly ashamed words.  
"It's okay, Roxas," she smiled, tilting her head to the side as she did so. "I know what you meant." The young witch sighed, glancing at her drawing pad and then back to her companion. "But I wish you'd talk to me more about this kind of stuff."

The former Organization XIII member snorted at this, crossing his arms and shrugging downheartedly.

"I know," Roxas shrugged again, his eyes scanning over everything in the pure white room but Naminé herself. "But, well, it doesn't help that I can only talk to you when Sora and Kairi are together!" he retorted, now pacing back and forth across the shining opal floor.

Naminé sighed again, putting her pencil down on the large white table behind her. She waited until Roxas had finished pacing before handing him her drawing pad, her brows raised in question.

Roxas stared at the picture for a few moments, his face unreadable.

"It looks just like me." He smiled at his blonde companion for a moment before a small frown made its way onto his previously happy face. "...But, why'd you make me look so, um... angst-y?"

It was Naminé's turn to snort. Standing up, she grabbed Roxas by the shoulders and spun him around to face a large mirror on the whitewashed wall. "Have you seen yourself lately?"

Groaning, he turned away from the mirror, forcing a smile as his eyes met the witch's worried ones. "Yeah, yeah... I guess you're right. Bleh." He stuck his tongue out at her, letting his shoulders slump.

The blonde pushed back her hair, tilting her head to the side again, a frown marring her pale face. "Something's happening."

Roxas' shoulders slumped even more, his head hanging low. "Guess it's time to go and see what he's up to now." He stood up, briefly embracing the girl before stepping back and smiling half-heartedly at her. "See you later, Naminé."

As the world began to split into two, the girl waved her arms at Roxas, her voice raised almost entreatingly.

"Remember what I said Roxas!" There was an almost desperate smile on her delicate face as she waved goodbye to him, her figure getting smaller and smaller. "-Don't worry about what'll happen! It's not like you'll disappear or anything, you'll just-"

The world snapped in two before he could hear the rest of what she was saying.

* * *

Roxas sighed, leaning back against the slippery obsidian steps that led up to the main skyscraper. It was surprising how comfortable such a hard thing could be when you were deep in thought. 

For the past few hours the former Nobody had been remembering his last conversation with Naminé, before Sora had been separated from his friends in space. Roxas found himself feeling as if he could just melt into the ground.

"...And after all of that, I still don't have an answer," he said quietly to himself, standing up and beginning to pace slowly, his shoes making barely any noise on the pitch black street.

Although he had become accustomed to the eternal night, moreover the endless raining, Roxas couldn't help but shiver as a cold gust of wind hit his soaked body. Chancing an even wetter face, he glanced up, his heart falling as his gaze rose to a completely black sky.

'_Still no stars..._' the blonde reflected solemnly, blinking away several drops of rain which had decided to fall directly into his open eyes. Letting his gaze fall back to the obsidian tiling below him, his thoughts began to wander yet again.

'_I wonder if there are many stars in the sky where Sora is right now_,' Roxas fixed an angry glare on the artificially shining neon star affixed to one of the buildings. '_-Not that he'd notice them, he's probably too busy with what's in front of him to be looking up at the sky anymore_.'

The blonde was now slowly making his way up the steps to the building where the large shining star still mocked him, bathing him in a strange blue light.

'_If Sora dies...what will happen to me? Will I just disappear? Will I cease to exist, even as a Nobody?_'

'If Sora dies.'

Now that was something he didn't really want to think about.  
...And yet he couldn't get rid of the thought; it seemed to fester inside of him until he thought he was going mad. Clutching his head, he kneeled down, trying to block out the light of the neon star. He had to get his head straight.

'_Sora's human, which means someday he'll die. It may be years and years from now, it may be tomorrow. ...It could even be seconds from now_.' He had always known this fact, but nevertheless it disquieted him greatly.

The same questions pressed to the front of his mind yet again, demanding to be rethought again and again.

"But what will happen to me?!" The blonde hissed angrily under his breath, his teeth grinding together as he tried to control his rage at this --among other-- questions never being answered.

As his temper burnt out, he found himself still filled with a strong feeling. It was a very bizarre feeling, like he was disintegrating, being blown away like dust in a winter storm.

...Although, he didn't expect to look down and actually _see_ his body whishing away. The Nobody let out a strangled gasp.

"W-what is---" his words were cut off as his entire body burst into dust, silently flying into the black sky.

* * *

There was brightness behind his eyelids when Roxas became aware again. The air that ruffled his hair smelled like the city, and felt...warm? 

'_Like, the sun's warmth?_'

Opening his eyes, his squinted against the bright noon sun, momentarily blinded. As his eyes adjusted to the brilliance of actual, natural _light_, the blonde became conscious of a body sprawled out in front of him.

"What the..." The Keybearer turned this way and that, trying to identify the body without moving any closer to it.

Not recognizing the orange haired teenager who lay unconscious on the gravel, and beginning to hear faint but strong voices in the distance, Roxas began to panic.

'_Is he alive? I can't see if he's breathing... Oh god, what if someone finds me like this? Will they kill me too? What do I do, what do I do...?!_' Stumbling backwards, Roxas almost screamed as he tripped over yet another body.

But, that wasn't truly the reason why he screamed. The real reason was that he recognized the body, and it was someone very close to him. Actually, it was someone he knew almost _more_ than he knew himself.

Sora's body lay before him.

To be continued.

* * *

**Editor's Note**:  
Don't you just want to shower the authors with youthful tears and strawberry Pocky? Send them some luv, everyone! 


	3. Chapter 3: A Case in Point

**All the King's Horses  
Chapter 3: A Case in Point**

------------------------------------------------

"What do you _**mean**_, you don't _**know **_where Sora is?!" Riku demanded desperately, his hand clutching Kairi's tightly. He hadn't let go of the redhead's hand since they had left their Gummy ships upon their arrival at Disney Castle.

"I didn't say that…it's just hard to tell exactly where he is at the moment…these things aren't easy, you know." The small mouse-like being stated sadly, pacing before the two childhood friends, his large yellow shoes making barely a sound on the shiny tile floor of the throne room.

Riku was visibly becoming more irritated, his brows scrunching together in desperation. "Make it easy, find a way! There has to be something we can do, something to get Sora back-"

"Riku, you need to calm down-"

"I am calm!"

"No, you're not. Don't you think I would know, after being stuck with you behind '_that' _door for so long?"

The silver haired teen flinched, letting his shoulders slump, defeated. "You're right…"

Kairi looked back and forth between the two before letting her eyes slide over to Donald and Goofy, who somberly stood nearby.

'_They haven't said anything since we've arrived…they must feel terrible,' _Kairi thought sadly, squeezing Riku's hand comfortingly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him smile weakly in response. '_-Just like Riku and I. We couldn't do anything to save Sora…not one thing. And now we're separated yet __**again**__.'_

There was a collective sigh through the sparsely occupied room.

"…Is there anything we can do?" Kairi asked quietly, brushing a piece of her shoulder length hair away from her face with her free hand.

"At this very moment…no. However," King Mickey raised a hand to silence Riku, who had looked dangerously close to another outburst. "-I think there are a few things you should know."

"Like what?" Both the childhood friend's seemed to speak at the exact same time.

The mousey King's face was grave as he answered solemnly."…the reason I summoned you three here in the first place. Because, although I hate to say it, these matters may be more pressing than Sora's disappearance."

'_More pressing than Sora's safety, even?' _Kairi thought, feeling surprisingly bitter. Kairi noticed that Riku scoffed but otherwise said nothing, so she motioned for the King to continue.

King Mickey was still pacing, his hands now held behind his back, his string-like tail swaying slowly behind him. "I sent for you three because the level of darkness is rising unnaturally fast in Twilight Town. So fast it might even break the seal on the Keyhole of the world."

Kairi bit her lip nervously, gripping Riku's hand tighter. "And if that happens…"

"…the Heartless will spill over into Twilight Town again." The mousy king finished for her.

'_All of those people are in danger…and they don't even have a way to defend themselves!' _Kairi's free hand now played absentmindedly with her pink skirt, she had stopped biting her lip when she tasted blood and needed something to distract her. "That's terrible!" she said finally, exchanging a worried glance with Riku, who looked like he almost knew what was happening, and whatever he thought it was made him queasy.

"King Mickey?" The silver haired teenager asked slowly, obviously trying put his complicated thoughts into the right words.

"Yes, Riku?"

"Do you know _exactly _where the darkness is rising?"

"Yes, actually; it's in the Haunted Mansion."

Riku sucked in his breath, eyes widening. "…that place?"

Mickey turned to the silver haired teenager, black button nose twitching. "Yes. …is there something wrong, Riku?"

Kairi was confused to say the least; as she still didn't know half of the things that had happened to Riku after he stayed behind the Door to Darkness. Most of the information she knew about 'that' time had come from Naminé during their short, but frequent talks. "What do you mean by 'that place'…?" she asked quietly, feeling--correction--_knowing _that she was missing something important.

"That place was where Sora slept for a year when his memories were being pieced back together by Naminé. Same with your guys' memories, too…-" he gestured towards Donald and Goofy, where they had stood silently, electing to let the others speak. "-…I don't know what it is, but for it to be happening there…it can't be good."

"Golly, Riku! You sure picked up on what I was thinking fast!" Mickey exclaimed, grinning up at the teenager, his seriousness disappearing if only for a moment before his face was sober again. "But that still doesn't give us the reason why it would be rising there of all places."

'_I wish I knew more about everything that happened when I was stuck at home. At least then I could help more, if even by a small amount!' _Kairi sighed, shaking her head softly. '_-No. even then, this matters seems to be out of all of our hands…unless…'_

"Your Majesty, I can understand why you would be worried about all of that happening, but…where do _we _come into all of this? For what purpose were we summoned here?"

The King didn't seem fazed, in fact, he seemed pleased that Kairi had asked such a thing. "Well, Kairi, it just so happens that I can't be in two places at the same time…-" He paused for a moment. "-at least, no yet."

Everyone other than King Mickey shared the same response. "_What_?"

The mousey king raised both of his hands entreatingly. "Please, allow me to explain; I urgently need to journey to Twilight Town to see what's happening to make the darkness level fluctuate, and there's the possibility that I may need to reseal the Keyhole there. However, just recently a large portion of the darkness level…_dropped. _Granted, there's still enough there to possibly break the seal, but the fact that it just moved like that is troubling."

Donald chose this moment to finally speak. "Moved? Wait, does that mean you know where it went?"

"Of course!" Mickey seemed genuinely surprised at Donald's question.

This time it was Goofy who spoke. "Well garwsh, Your Majesty, how did you find out something like that?"

Again, Mickey seemed openly surprised. "Why, By using the DTD, of course!"

**-Karakura Town-**

Sora awoke feeling empty.

-And not the hungry kind of empty, either. Although, now that the Keybearer thought about it, he _was _sort of hungry…

'_Eh? Voices?' _He kept his eyes closed, trying to regulate his breathing so it would seem like he was still asleep. Sure, eavesdropping was wrong, but it should be okay if he didn't know where he was, right?

"…is that all, Kurosaki?" Came a slightly annoyed male voice from his left. Sora judged that from the height the voice had come from, the young sounding man was either sitting down…or really short.

"Yeah." Ichigo's voice sounded unnaturally weak, although he must have only been a few feet away from Sora himself. Was the other teenager feeling the same way he was right now?

"That's barely anything, right Captain?" This voice was deeper, and most definitely a woman's. The young-sounding man grumbled in response.

Sora heard something that sounded like a halfhearted smack from Ichigo's direction. "Fool! You allowed someone you didn't even know to sleep in your room?!" A rather haughty voice rang out near where Sora thought Ichigo was.

"Heh…like that mattered when you slept in my _closet, _Rukia." Was Ichigo's angry response to the woman who Sora assumed was this 'Rukia' Ichigo had previously spoken of.

The only noise the woman made after that was a quiet 'humph!'. Sora noticed that the whole room had slipped into a state of awkward silence until the young-sounding man spoke again, even more irritated than the last time. "Aside from that, Kurosaki, you said something about a 'Key-sword' thing?"

Sora spoke before he could stop himself. "It's a 'Key_blade_, not a 'Key-_sword_'!"

"Okay, so it's a Key_blade…" _The man corrected himself, his tone surprisingly childish. The young-sounding man quickly cleared his throat, his voice sounding much deeper when he spoke next. "So, you're awake, are you?"

The Keybearer opened his eyes and sat up slowly, glancing around him to confirm that he did indeed _not _recognize his surroundings. The room was sparsely decorated; there were only the two woven straw mats that him and Ichigo were laying on, and a small table which was low to the ground. _'I should have noticed earlier how hard my 'bed' was…' _Sora thought groggily before scanning his more human-like surroundings.

There were four people other than Sora occupying the small room. Ichigo, who was rubbing his arm where a red mark was slowly showing up, followed a petite black-haired woman sitting next to the substitute Soul Reaper who Sora could only assume--from the way she was acting towards Ichigo--was Rukia . Then--on the brown haired teenager's right--there were two more people; a short, spiky white haired boy who must have been the other male Sora had heard --although he didn't _look _it. How could someone so small have such a mature voice? -And a strawberry-blonde haired woman who had positively the largest breasts Sora had **ever **seen in his entire _**life**_…not to say that he was looking. The woman's chuckle at Sora's now-red cheeks confirmed that she was the deep-voiced woman he had heard previously.

"I haven't been awake that long…just a minute or so," The Keyblade Master shrugged, scratching the back of his head as he grinned sheepishly. "Are you guys…Soul Reapers?"

"So Ichigo told you about us too, huh?" Sora thought she sounded a little odd talking so casually, and he surmised that she was used to talking formally. "Rukia Kuchiki, of the 13th squad."

The white haired boy and the busty woman also stood, the former extending his hand to Sora, who excepted it and stood up. Said white haired man glared intently up at the Keybearer, crossing his arms. "Tôshirô Hitsugaya, _Captain _of the 10th squad."He then turned sharply and strode other side of the room, where his blonde companion was stretching.

'…_was he trying to intimidate me?' _Sora was mulling this over as he noticed the blonde woman staring at him from across the room.

"Rangiku Matsumoto, Vice-Captain of the 10th squad," Glancing to her side and seeing that Hitsugaya was facing away from her, her face broke into a broad smile, and she winked at Sora teasingly. "Nice to meet you."

The Keybearer hurriedly looked away, climbing up off of the straw mat he had been laying on. Ichigo had just gotten up as well, smoothing his black robes inattentively, his eyebrows scrunched together. His face was one of irritation as Sora approached him, opening his mouth to say something but was cut off by the lanky orange haired teenager. "You knew who they were, didn't you?"

Sora was surprised at how direct Ichigo was, but after a short pause, decided that it was better to just tell the truth than play stupid. "Yeah."

He could hear the Substitute Soul Reaper grinding his teeth together as he stepped closer to Sora. "Who the _hell _were they and why did they want me?!" He almost growled this, and the Keybearer felt like he had shrunk about a foot as he looked up at the older-looking teenager.

Sora was quiet for a moment, his mind rushing to reject the fact that he had actually _seen _the Organization XIII. Pushing all sense from his mental voice of reason away, he forced these thoughts out of his mind, staring up into the eyes of the angered teenager staring expectantly down at him. "They're the Organization XIII, and…I don't know why they want you. But the thing is, I already kil-"

Sora was cut off yet again as a new voice sounded from behind everyone.

"_Goood morning, everybody_!" The voice almost sang. All turned to see a tall man entering from a set of sliding doors at one side of the small squall room. He had dirty blonde hair, wooden sandals, and what had to be the oddest green-and-white striped hat Sora had even seen. The teenager could only see black leading up under the hat which hid the man's eyes from Sora, at least from where he was standing.

Ichigo grumbled something that sounded like 'you're the only one that's having a good one, Hat-'n-clogs…'.

The man ignored Ichigo and strode confidently over to Sora, whipping out a fan from who-knew-where and flapping it front of his grinning face. "So, is this the hobo friend 'Sora' you were talking about, Ichigo?"

Sora was startled at how…serious this man's eyes were as they examined the Keybearer's face. It seemed was like the man's entire personality was just a façade once you looked into his eyes.

'_Why's he looking at me like that…wait..' _

"I'm not a _**HOBO**_!" Sora exclaimed jumping away from the man, his cheeks heating up visibly as he glanced around the room at all the people staring at him rather judgingly. "I'm _not_!"

"Oi, Urahara. He--" -and Ichigo jabbed a thumb in Sora's general direction.- "--knows who those bastards that attacked me were."

"Really, now?" The man identified as Urahara snapped his fan closed, stepping back and motioning to someone beyond the sliding door he had first entered through. "You should come in and hear this too, Yoruichi." He added thoughtfully before advancing on Sora again.

As soon as he said this, a tall, slim woman with dark skin soundlessly glided through the door, her long purple hair waving behind her in an unseen gust of air. She stopped at Urahara's side, crossing her arms and staring broodingly at Sora.

"I believe introductions are in order," The blonde man pointed his fan dramatically at the purple haired woman. "Sora, this is Yoruichi," He pointed the fan at Sora, who almost stumbled backwards so that he wouldn't be struck by the fan. "-Yoruichi, this is Sora." Both 'introduced' people glared at the man, who in response, chose to ignore their reactions altogether.

"Get on with it, Kisuke." Yoruichi uncrossed her arms, irritably brushing nonexistent dust off her odd orange shirt and tight black pants.

_'Well, __**that**__ looks like a habit…' _Sora mentally commented as the woman crossed her arms again.

"…as you wish, Yoruichi." Kisuke was quiet for a moment, flipping open his fan and waving it absentmindedly. "Hmm…Sora, Ichigo, as much as I'd like to tell you what's wrong with you, I'm afraid you're going to have tell me more about what happened; starting with _you_, Sora."

'_What am I going to tell them if they ask about the Organization? The truth? …that could lead to complications…but, then again, I can't very well __**lie**__; what if they found out? I'd be as good as the enemy, then…!' _Sora probably would have continued his inner monologue had Kisuke not began to ask him some critical questions.

"Who are you, Sora, and why are you here?" The blonde man's voice was surprisingly serious, a complete turn around from the way he had been speaking only a moment before.

Taken back by how direct the man's question was, Sora didn't even think of _thinking _of an answer for the man until he saw the gazes of all of the occupants of the room staring straight at _him_.

'_I have to say this right the first time; if I screw up, they may think I'm dangerous…and then things could get __**really **__bad for me'… _The Keybearer opened and shut his mouth several times, trying to find a remotely articulate way of correctly phrasing what he wanted to say. He took a deep breath, focusing his gaze only on the tall man standing before him.

"I'm a Keybearer; a 'chosen one' who can wield this--" He summoned the Keyblade, making sure to hold it unthreatening manner, laxly holding it by one of the sides of the hilt, the key shaped tip pointing to the floor. "--The Keyblade."

Everyone but Urahara seemed surprised, in fact, most of them seemed downright shocked, while the blonde haired man seemed vaguely intrigued. Their expressions aside, no one in the room spoke a word, so Sora took his time to continue.

"There are these things…'Heartless'. 'We' call them that because…they feed on the darkness in someone's heart, corrupting it and tainting it until they--" Sora grimaced as he forced himself to admit this small piece of information which had been common-knowledge in his world, sparing him having to explain it. "--steal their heart completely. These 'Heartless'…only someone with a Keyblade can free the heart they stole. But if someone else kills a Heartless…I don't know what happens to the heart."

"Sounds like that damn 'Quincy'…" Ichigo grumbled disbelievingly from the back of the room where he was leaning against the wall, sulking for some unknown reason.

"I find what you're saying hard to believe." The white haired Captain of the 10th squad had begun pacing around the room.

Rangiku glanced at the young man, chuckling a few times. "Almost as hard to believe as a 'Soul Reaper', captain?"

The white haired man ignored his vice-captain, ceasing his pacing and silently going to join Ichigo in his sulking.

"Interesting," Kisuke glanced at Yoruichi, who, like the others, had stayed mostly silent since Sora had explained who he was. "But that still doesn't explain _how _and _why _you're here."

"That's right." Yoruichi agreed .

Sora's eyes darkened and he let his head fall as he recalled how he had been forced to part with his friends. "I'm here because I was traveling with my friends to another world to help another Keybearer…but on the way we were caught in a meteor shower, and we were…separated. That's how I got here…except," Sora looked up, his face now guilt-ridden. "I don't know if there's even a way to get back to them…" The brunette dismissed the Keyblade , shaking his head. "Even if there _was _a way, now that the Organization XIII is somehow back-" But yet again Sora was cut off. If this how it was all the time here, how did _anyone _ever get there point across on this world?

"-Yeah, Tell me about those guys already!" Ichigo interrupted, fed up with how his encounter with the Organization had been pretty much ignored.

"They were a bunch of these 'Nobodies'-" Sora started but was interrupted again by the orange haired substitute Soul Reaper.

"_Nobodies_? They sure as hell weren't _**nobodies **_when they were kickin' my ass!" The teenager stated sarcastically.

"A Nobody is the shell left behind of a strong-hearted person who has their heart stolen by a Heartless… the shell has no heart, and no soul; it exists with all the memories of the person before…but they can't feel." Sora paused, trying to pull together everything he had learned in his previous journey to explain exactly what the Organization was. "Organization XIII was a group of nobodies that kept their form because of how strong their hearts used to be. They banded together to try to conquer this thing called 'Kingdom Hearts', because they thought it would make them 'real' again…they were going to destroy everything…so I, and a few others…_we _destroyed them first. Then I locked the Heartless behind the Door to Darkness…and trust me on that one, it's pretty hard to explain."

"Then why the hell are they here? --Not to mention showing up and knowing who I am?! What the hell was that thing that that blonde stuck-up freak crushed on us? What do they want?" The orange haired teenager seemed to be getting more irritated by the second, not at Sora, but at his current situation.

Sora's answer was simple and he sounded slightly guilty as he said it. "I don't know."

"Wait--So, one moment they were dead, and the next, alive and kicking my ass?"

"Basically, yeah."

"Well, shit." Ichigo swore, immensely annoyed at this point in time.

Rukia cleared her throat loudly, and everyone turned to see her at the small table, a sketchbook in hand, pencil lying on the table. "During your bout of vulgarity, Ichigo, I drew a diagram depicting everything that Sora has told us thus far," She held up a piece of paper littered with deformed bear--or were those bunny--scribbles, some which looked like Sora and the Keyblade. "--I think these should help us understand better what the kid here has been telling us."

Everyone turned away from her.

"H-hey!" Came Rukia's annoyed voice from behind them, but all ignored her pleas and turned their attention back to Sora once again.

"I think we know enough for the moment, Sora." Kisuke glanced over at the door he had entered through to see it open, a tall man with glasses and a large mustache carrying a tray of tea.

"Thanks, Tessai. " Urahara beckoned to the small table which the man had set the tea tray on. "There is a small number of things we should discuss, but we should have refreshment first!"

Everyone--including Rukia-- sat down and drank some odd tasting tea. Sora couldn't help but gag as the odd liquid trickled down his throat. Tea hadn't been a staple drink on the islands he had grown up on, and this…green liquid was extremely foreign to him…not to mention it tasted terrible.

It was Yoruichi who spoke out first, putting her cup down onto the table slowly. "Kisuke, who brewed this? …it might as well be poison."

This was the moment where everyone realized that Urahara himself hadn't been drinking the tea. Noticing that everyone's gaze was on him, he flipped open is fan, waving it in front of him so that no one could see his face. "…Tessai brewed it."

Everyone at the table but Sora immediately set down their cups. Sora slowly put down his, trying to ignore the urge run to the nearest source of water and drink a gallon or two , just to clear his throat of the gross taste.

'_I'm never eating or drinking--no--never __**touching **__anything this "Tessai" makes __**ever **__again.' _Sora promised himself, coughing quietly.

Ichigo cleared his throat, looking expectantly at Kisuke. "You said there was still stuff to talk about, right?"

The man seemed pleased that the subject had been changed, and he grinned widely at the orange haired teenager, snapping his fan shut again. "Ichigo, Sora; both of you feel oddly weak, correct?"

"Yeah." Ichigo looked rather…miffed about Kisuke's manner of handling their situation, and his eyebrows--as always--were furrowed together angrily.

"Um, I guess." The brunette teenager shifted his nervously, hoping this also didn't have to do with the Keyblade or the Organization XIII.

"Anything else? Any other feelings?" The dirty blonde yawned loudly.

Ichigo shrugged, his brows drawn together thoughtfully. "I can't pinpoint it exactly, but…"

Sora hummed, trying to think of anything that had felt weird recently. Other than the whole, y'know, breaching the atmosphere thing. _"Any other feelings? Like…'_

"I feel…sort of empty…?" Both the orange, and brunette haired teenagers spoke this simultaneously.

"Iiiinteresting," Urahara tapped his chin with the closed fan thoughtfully. "I've also been meaning to ask you guys this, but didn't think the timing was appropriate…" he looked first at Sora, and then back to Ichigo. "Have either of you noticed how low your spiritual pressure has become?"

For a moment, Sora was confused before he used his brain to figure out what he meant by 'spiritual pressure'. Ichigo was just gaping at Kisuke.

Yoruichi stared at Ichigo, thinking hard. After a few moments, she plopped her fist into her other open hand, giving a very-cat like exclamation. "Tell me, Ichigo; do you feel the Hollow inside of you still fighting for dominance?"

The said teenager's eyes widened considerably, his mouth falling open. "…_**no, I don't**_. Crap, crap, _crap_! _What the hell happened_?! Is he..."

The rest of the room was silent as they watched Ichigo try to contain himself, and Rukia scooted closer to him, laying a hand on his arm.

'_What does she mean 'the Hollow inside of him'…? And…why do I feel so empty, like something's missing?' _Sora's mind tumbled into turmoil as he tried to grab the answer that seemed to dance just out of is reach. _'Hey, Roxas, gimmie some help here..!'_

And then it hit him.

'…_Roxas?' _Sora began to panic. _'…Roxas, are you there?'_

'_**Roxas?' **_He repeated again, his mental voice now desperate.

'_ROXAS?!'_

**-Karakura Downtown-**

'_What am I doing?_' Roxas ran haphazardly down the crowded street, panting as he ran out of breath. He shouted several apologies over his shoulder when he collided with people, but didn't stop running, didn't look back.

When the blonde had heard shouts and movement approaching his, at the two unconscious teens location, he had turned and ran. He didn't look back, and didn't stop running until he was completely out of breath; and even then he mustered enough energy to veer into a small, trash littered alleyway, away from the bustling afternoon crowd.

He slumped against the grimy wall, gasping for air as he tried to grasp what he had just run from.

'_Why did I run? I didn't do anything wrong…did I? It's not like I killed them…' _Roxas shuddered at this thought, remembering Sora's seemingly dead body. The brunette had been breathing, he recognized that now, but that didn't change how he felt.

"This is wrong," He looked at his hands, unable to stop a small surge of joy. "I shouldn't be this way. I was amalgamated with Sora before they destroyed Xemnas."

Shame.

Exultation at his newfound freedom.

…and a lightly tingling sensation in his nose from the stench of the trash.

Roxas felt all of these simultaneously as he stood in the dark alley, reduced to clinging to the slime-ridden wall. His mind helplessly buzzing with to many questions and feelings.

An amused voice sounded from behind the blonde, whose eyes widened in surprise.. "Wuss."

Spinning around, Roxas was surprised to see a man who seemed to be the exact replica of the unconscious orange haired teenager he had seen earlier that day; however, this person seemed to be completely bleached _white_-except for his eyes, which were so bizarre; the whites of his eyes were instead black, and his pupils a glowing gold.

"Who are you?" The ex-Organization XIII member glanced around him warily, cursing himself for putting himself in a situation such as this, in a narrow alleyway, where there was nowhere to run but to a dead end.

The man just laughed at him, and Roxas could see that the…thing had a blue tongue. Weird.

"Hey! Why do you look like him?" Roxas assumed that the bleached man would know who he was talking about.

"I could ask the same, midget." The man replied, sneering toothily.

Roxas was trying his hardest not to retort to the man's 'comments', but was getting fairly agitated. "…how do you know about Sora?"

"I was there, same as you. Tell me," the man took several steps closer to Roxas, who in response took several steps back. "What the hell happened back there?"

"I…don't know…" Roxas kept backing up until he found his back up against a dead end. _'crap…' _

"Not good enough—" The man was suddenly in front of Roxas, choking him with one hand, his eyes narrowed, sneer now an insane grin. "-twerp."

"H-hey!" The blonde Keybearer struggled against the white haired man, trying to kick the man but failing, his legs swinging out uselessly. The man's reaction as to haul Roxas up against the wall, still choking him with only one hand.

"You're going to tell what happened, or I'm going to kill you. Pick one."

"Sc-screw you…!" Roxas managed to choke out, trying to flail once again, but he was starting to lost energy from the effort against the other man with so little air in his lungs.

Laughing again, the man squeezed Roxas neck so hard the teenager saw stars. "Stupid."

The blonde summoned the Kingdom Key, swinging out at the man's face. The man dropped him in alarm, dodging the odd weapon before reaching behind himself and pulling a large white sword off his back.

''Better than a freak with a bad eye infection!" Roxas stalled, his voice cracking as he slowly regained control over his bruised vocal cords.

'_The sword is almost as long as his body…!' _He thought nervously, now taking in the man's full appearanceHis assailant was clothed in the same garments Roxas had seen the orange haired teenager wearing, only this man's attire was a completely inverted version.

Then Roxas soon realized that he _was _still trapped at the dead-end, and thrust the Keyblade out in front of him defensively, haggardly gasping for air in his now sore throat.

"What's wrong, kid, 'fraid of me?" The man began to walk towards Roxas, leering manically.

'_I can't run; he'll kill me in a second with that…'thing' if I try to get past him…' _Roxas' eyes scanned the alleyway for any possible escape routes, and after a moment of frantic searching, he finally found something with some sort of prospect.

'_That should work…' _

"How could I be afraid of someone so freakin' colour blind?" Spat the blonde Keybearer as he made a dash towards the bleached man, swerving at the last second to plant a foot high on the brick wall, swinging his weight forward so that he could run for a short distance on the _side _of thewall. As Roxas felt gravity begin to pull him down, he kicked off the wall, grabbing the overhang of the building and using it to swing himself in the opposite direction of the bleached man. As Roxas flew forward off the building, he twisted mid-air, chucking the Keyblade at the man's head as hard as he could.

The man on the receiving end of the weapon grinned, easily using his over-sized sword to deflect the Keyblade, grabbing Roxas' weapon by the hilt before it could shoot back towards where the Keybearer had landed.

The man looked like he was about to say something particularly crude about Roxas, that was, until he noticed that the blonde teenager had turned tail and ran out of the alley, not looking back.

"You'd leave your own weapon behind?!" Roxas heard the man shout after him, and soon he could hear loud footsteps behind him, signaling that the man was indeed following him.

The Keybearer didn't know what to do; he was being chased by someone who could probably kill him and then go eat a sundae without a second thought, not to mention he was in a place completely foreign to him. On the other hand, however, this man seemed to be in the same situation as he was; and there was even a small chance the man knew remotely what had happened to the both of them.

By this time though, Roxas had ran back into the largely populated square, where what seemed to be a small sea of people were constantly moving, shouting friendly greetings at the people they recognized over the crowd.

This was about the time when Roxas decided to stop running. Turning around, he found himself face to face with his pursuer. Well, face to chest, really, because the man was several heads taller than him. The Keyblade was nowhere to be seen, and the teenager assumed it had disappeared on it's own after the Keybearer had bolted.

"Finally decided to stop being such a pansy, huh?" The man remarked, leering angrily at Roxas, who glared defiantly up at the man.

"Finally decided to stop trying to _kill _me long enough for us to find out what happened back there?" Was Roxas' hurried reply, as he glanced around to make sure no one had heard him. _'All we need is for somebody to think that this guy's sword is real…' _Most of the crowd offered the bleached man odd looks, but none seemed too alarmed. _'Maybe a lot of people wear costumes around here?'_

"…I was getting tired of playing with a whelp like you, anyway. 'Specially after that stupid weapon of yours disappeared." The man sneered at Roxas, who was glaring even harder at him now. The tall man laughed openly at the blonde's fierce look, but the two had seemed to make a silent truce to stop trying to kill each other. For now.

"Yeah, whatever. Can't you change or something? …people are staring."

"Are you sure they aren't staring at _you_?"

"That's right, they're staring at the normal looking--not to mention normal acting--teenager, instead of staring at the white freak with the huge sword and black eyes." Roxas snapped sarcastically, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Better a freak than a wimp!" Came the man's reply before stalking off through the crowd, and into a nearby store. Roxas only had to wait a few moments before he heard some angry yelling coming from said store followed by a white and black blur.

The 'freak' was suddenly behind him, roughly grabbing the teenager's thin arm and hauling him away from the scene. Seconds later the man shoved him into a bathroom, thrusting him into a stall and slamming the stall door closed.

"I change, _you change_." He called, chucking a small bright red bag over the divider to land on the teens head. Roxas was staring at the stall door, mouth hanging open in surprise at how he had just been so…manhandled.

The teenager waited until he saw the man's sandaled feet move out of view and undressed, chucking his smelly clothes into the corner of the stall. _'Jeeze, that alley stunk…' _He thought, disgusted he had even been wearing those stinky, sweaty clothes for so long. Opening the messenger bag, he pulled out several items of clothing and proceeded to redress himself, swearing when he bumped his forehead on the front of the stall door as he was trying to get a particularly tight shirt on. As soon as he was done dressing, he shoved all of his old clothes into the messenger bag, promising the bag would find a way to wash the clothes before the stink became too ingrained in the fabric.

A moment later, he stepped out of the stall, glancing at himself in the mirror. He was now only wearing one layer of clothing, compared to the several of his last outfit. Instead of his multiple jackets, he now wore only a very tight fitting white shirt, with black sleeves that stopped at his forearms. A small gold crown decorated the neckline of the shirt, which was also a little tight on the teenager. Instead of his grey and crème pants that he had been wearing a moment before, he now wore slim legged blue jeans, which he was currently winding a leather belt around. Trying not to fuss with the chain on the side, he glanced at himself again '_Wait…this looks a little like…' _Roxas' eyes narrowed furiously at his own reflection as a _wonderful _realization dawned on him

"_**You gave me girl's clothes!" **_The teenager almost shouted, a dark blush rising to his cheeks as he tried to mentally kill his reflection for portraying him so…girlishly.

"What, you're not a girl?" An amused voice came from the side of the bathroom, and the blonde teenager spun around to see the bleached man standing strolling out of one of the bathroom stalls, shrugging on a white over shirt over an equally white tank top. He left the over shirt unbuttoned, but rolled the sleeves up to his elbows so that they wouldn't get in the way during a fight.

Instead of the white traditional hakama Roxas had met him in, he now wore normal white slacks, tight against his hips, as he was wearing a simple black leather belt. Roxas could see that under the trousers --surprise, surprise-- he was wearing white leather shoes.

"Does Roxas sound like a girl name to you?!" The blonde's reply was tart as he glared at the now modernly-dressed man.

"For someone with such a '_fair complexion' _as you, it'll do just fine.'' The man jeered as he slid a pair of slim black sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, straightening them clumsily. He had obviously never wore eyeshades before.

"'Fair complexion', my ass. You're the one that's whiter than sour cream."

"Che, Whatever. Do I look 'normal' now?"

"You look like you're about to kill someone."

"Really?" 

"Really."

"Perfect," He smirked, running a hand through his stark opal hair. "Let's go, _Roxanne_." The man turned, opening the bathroom door and striding out, a triumphant grin adorning his white face.

Roxas followed, shaking his head pessimistically as he heard the man cackle malevolently.

What had he gotten himself into?

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**Writer's Note:**

Lizeth couldn't be here for this chapter, 'cause she fell into the black hole known as _finals. _Pray for her safe return...

Replies to reviewers without a account (note: people without accounts will not be able to comment after this

To xAkatsukiDeidara: _For all that is clay, explosive and artful,_ _**NO.**_ I simply _refuse _to write such a thing as cross-pairings in this fiction. Never-_**ever**_.

Why?

-because it would make something like _**Aizen x Mickey**_ possible, that's why!

_...gross._

To Ikena: Thank you so much :D I hope you enjoy what happens to the characters in the future chapters!

Happy Holidays!

Fayette


	4. Chapter 4 Announcement

Announcement

CtaK: Lizeths wonderful fan art of our/hers fic made us realize that we had started to neglected the story. Due to a bad chain of events and a huge writer's-block-wall-of-doom hitting Fayette in the face, Chained to a Kiwi is sad to announce that we will be dropping the 'All the Kings Horses' fanfic.

But, we are offering/imploring to anyone who will accept, who can take up the story. You can re-wright it if you so wish. And if you want well even send you our plot line notes and the beginnings of chapter four.

BUT! Kuriko is still up to passing ideas for the story and is an awesome beta reader. So feel free to abuse- I mean use her! Shes relay nice and will help anyway she can.

Feel free to note us for any further questions.

Thank you for reading this. This would mean a lot to us to see it finished.


	5. Notice

As you all know, All the King's Horses has been on adoption. But Soomin has adopted it! Chapter 4 is on her account and chapter 5 will soon be there also. Thank you all for your patience and sorry for the slow work. The story itself has reamained is still the same and is beta'd by the lovely KuagariKitsune and they both hope you will enjoy the story,


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